Be careful what you ask for.
He took her at her word, thank God, pounding into her faster, harder, deeper.
Each thrust stole her breath and rebuilt her at the same time. She couldn’t breathe and didn’t care. Her heels dug into his ass, thighs squeezing tight around his waist. Her nails scored his shoulders as she clung to him.
Then his mouth took hers again, tongue thrusting in perfect rhythm with his body. He changed the angle, dragging the thick head of his cock over her swollen clit with every stroke.
She shattered.
A raw cry broke from her throat. Jaxon swallowed the sound, kissing her through the violent waves as her body clamped down around him again and again.
He rode her right through it, thrusts growing harder, faster, fueled by pure fury and eight years of pent-up need. With a deep, guttural groan against her mouth, he came, pulsing hot and deep inside her.
The feel of it threw her into another sharp climax. Her entire body locked, legs wrapped around him. Pleasure so intense it almost hurt crashed through her. The roar of her own heartbeat filled her ears.
When the last tremor finally faded, Tazzy went limp beneath him. With a soft, shaky sigh, she released her grip on his hips, allowing herlegs to slide down his body. She dragged air into her burning lungs, mouth aching sweetly from his kisses.
Taken.
She licked her swollen lips.
More than that, her whole body felt swollen and deliciously used.
For just a moment, a flicker of panic tried to rise, but she had no energy left to feed it. So much for guarding her heart. She had loved Jaxon from the moment those hypnotic blue eyes had locked on hers across the cafeteria in ninth grade.
Today, he had rescued her, just like the heroes in the romance novels she secretly devoured. Just like a Daddy was supposed to do for his babygirl.
When she had given him her heart all those years ago, she had done it with everything she was. In truth, even through all the pain of the last eight years, she had never really taken it back.
Now he would keep it safe forever.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jaxon pulled his bike into the alley behind Books-N-Brews, and damn if it didn’t feel good to have his girl on the back of it. She held on tight, pressed against him, and he loved the feel of her every mile they rode.
Tazzy was just walking in the back door in front of him when his phone started ringing. The screen read Dax.
As much as he didn’t want Tazzy out of his sight, he said, “Go on in, Sprite. I’ll be there in a sec.”
He couldn’t help frowning at the name, even though he’d put Dax’s number in his phone after he’d met with Sabre the week before. He understood the man was on his side, but that warning note still bothered him. He still didn’t know why Dax had been in possession of that same paper. At least the past few days had been quiet, but still. The DA’s office never called unless something had gone sideways.
He answered on the fourth ring. “Yeah?”
“Jaxon, listen to me.” The man’s voice came through tight and serious. “We just received an anonymous threat. It was on paper, not email. Short, typed, no signature, and shoved under the front door of the DA’s office. It says, and I quote, ‘If Jaxon keeps digging, Tazzy will be removed. Permanently. Consider this your only warning.’”
Jaxon’s blood turned to ice. His hand tightened around the phoneuntil the plastic creaked. “Removed. Permanently.” The word landed like a hammer to the chest. Son of a bitch! They wanted to make her disappear, even though she’d done nothing. No, this was all about punishing Jaxon, like they hadn’t already done enough.
Dax kept talking, voice low and steady. “The note was written on the same kind of notepad Phillip Thorne had last week. Same paper stock. Same hidden watermark that only appears under the right light. I searched the office for any other similar paper after Gage mentioned it. Somethingyoushould have mentioned, by the way. But there was nothing else like it. Just that one pad Thorne has. This isn’t some random crank, Jaxon. This came from inside the General’s circle. Phillip is working out of the man’s empty office right now. He has the notepad and all the access he needs. Right now, that makes him the prime suspect.”
Jaxon dragged a hand down his face, jaw locked so tight it ached. He walked over to the door to check on Tazzy. There she was, laughing with Georgia, completely unaware that someone had just put a target on her back. He’d already lost eight years of being with her. He wasn’t losing another second.
“I’m on my way to the warehouse after I get Tazzy settled,” he said. “I’ll fill Sabre in. You keep digging on your end. Anything you find, I want to know immediately.”
“Will do. And Jaxon… watch her close. This doesn’t feel like a bluff.”
“Believe me when I tell you she’ll be watched,” Jaxon growled before ending the call.
Jaxon leaned against the cool brick wall for one long moment, staring at the back door of Books-N-Brews and trying not to punch something. The threat echoed in his head like a gunshot that would not stop ringing. “Removed. Permanently.”